Just off the Solstice Hawaii to Vancouver

[jgreenwo17]

Being finally able to cruise with Celebrity and do the Hawaii to Vancouver itinerary was a real treat. DW has been working fulltime and going to school fulltime and really needed a break. Well I am happy to report she got one on this cruise. Five exciting days on the islands and 5 wonderful and relaxing sea daze.

 

We are Celebrity newbies and are very impressed with the brand. Our AQ cabin with all the little extras made DW very happy during our cruise. (Me too). Blu was very nice and the staff exceptional.

 

Shore Excursions,entertainment, onboard activities were all well done.

 

Staff from cabin steward to guest relations were the friendliest I have encountered on a cruise.

 

I want to give a shout out to Thursday's Child for setting up a nice dinner in Blu for other CC members. She is a wealth of information and a delight. Also Kudos to Bob and Gigi for their good roll call work. It was nice to meet these fine people in person.

 

More detailed review to follow.

 

John and Jill

Edited May 13, 2014 by jgreenwo17

[Cruise Junky]

Great cruise wasn't it? My review is almost finished but the Coles notes version is we loved it

 

 

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[April29]

Looking forward to the reviews.

 

We are on this cruise in 2015.

[jgreenwo17]

Great cruise wasn't it? My review is almost finished but the Coles notes version is we loved it

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

I'm glad you are reporting a good experience as well. Awaiting your review.

 

John

[TeaBag]

Here's another one who enjoyed that cruise. I'm glad your first experience with Celebrity was such a positive one. We have never had a bad cruise with them.

[Cruising89143]

Wow a thread about people who actually enjoyed their cruise. A breath of fresh air.:)

[Cruise Junky]

Wow a thread about people who actually enjoyed their cruise. A breath of fresh air.:)

 

 

It's because we had the premium package ;)

 

 

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[Lastdance]

This was very refreshing to read. I thought Hawaii was gone for 2015. Have I just been reading too many posts? :eek:

Edited May 13, 2014 by Lastdance

[TeaBag]

This was very refreshing to read. I thought Hawaii was gone for 2015. Have I just been reading too many posts? :eek:

This was a repositioning cruise. It will be repeated in 2015. I think what is gone are the cruises to Hawaii return that Century used to do.

[maggie.1008]

We are doing Solstice Vancouver to Hawaii in Sept. 2015.

[DebbieMacG]

Glad you had a great time :D

[jan-n-john]

Looking forward to the reviews.

 

We are on this cruise in 2015.

 

We are too. For us the second half of a b2b starting in Sydney.

[patrickandsusan]

Cruise Junky and YVR Cruiser, I see that you are Vancouver-ites. We are flying into Vancouver a week from Friday for the 7 day Alaska cruise on Crown. It's my first time in Van. We are staying at the Pan Pacific Fri. night and want to pick-up our wine in town before embarkation. Is there a good place for decent prices anywhere near there? Also, Cruise Junky, I read a post of yours from last week about busy embarkation at Canada Place. Will it still be bad the weekend of 5/24? I will need to warn my family! Thanks and cheers!

[Cruise Junky]

Cruise Junky and YVR Cruiser, I see that you are Vancouver-ites. We are flying into Vancouver a week from Friday for the 7 day Alaska cruise on Crown. It's my first time in Van. We are staying at the Pan Pacific Fri. night and want to pick-up our wine in town before embarkation. Is there a good place for decent prices anywhere near there? Also, Cruise Junky, I read a post of yours from last week about busy embarkation at Canada Place. Will it still be bad the weekend of 5/24? I will need to warn my family! Thanks and cheers!

 

There's two ships in port on the 24th, you and Zuiderdam...thank goodness Disney is out at Ballantyne. It will be busy but not as nuts as this Saturday is going to be. Just be patient. Vancouver always takes longer to board because you have to go through US Customs first.

 

You sure you want to buy your wine in Canada? ;) From the Pan Pacific there's a liquor store at the base of the harbour tower... it's the Vancouver Landmark with the space ship on the top on Hastings street. With your back to the Pan and the ships, it's on your left. Liquor store is on the ground floor. If you fancy a walk, there's a nice Wine Store up Burrard beside the Sutton Place Hotel. There's also a wine store on Pender which have your back to the Pan again, walk up Burrard a block and head right on Pender, it's about 2 blocks down. Enjoy :)

[Fisherwoman]

Cruise Junky and YVR Cruiser, I see that you are Vancouver-ites. We are flying into Vancouver a week from Friday for the 7 day Alaska cruise on Crown. It's my first time in Van. We are staying at the Pan Pacific Fri. night and want to pick-up our wine in town before embarkation. Is there a good place for decent prices anywhere near there? Also, Cruise Junky, I read a post of yours from last week about busy embarkation at Canada Place. Will it still be bad the weekend of 5/24? I will need to warn my family! Thanks and cheers!

 

We live in Vancouver and buy our wine in the US. The prices are MUCH cheaper in the US. Bring it up with you if at all possible! The first cruises of the year are always busy. You are staying right upstairs so get there before 11 AM and you will be first in line. Even if they aren't boarding you will clear customs and have a nice chair to sit in waiting for the ship to start boarding. Have a wonderful cruise!

[socreader]

We are too. For us the second half of a b2b starting in Sydney.

 

There iare very active roll calls for both Solstice 2015 Sydney to Honolulu and Honolulu to Vancouver legs. If you have not done so please come join us. :)

[TeaBag]

Cruise Junky and Fisherwoman have covered your queries well. I'll just hold the sunshine as it is today till you get here.:D Have a great cruise.

[Texed]

J&J

Thanks for posting. :)

[patrickandsusan]

Cruise Junky and Fisherwoman-Thanks so much for the info. We have 2 wheel chairs in the group (my dad & brother) so we are hoping for a smooth embarkation. Since we are staying right there, we planned on going early, so Fisherwoman, thanks especially for the tip of going down really early for customs! That is a fantastic idea!

 

YVR Cruiser, thanks for holding the sunshine for us. It's 100F here today, so a little cool weather will be a welcome change, but the sun would be great!

 

Looking forward to seeing your beautiful city! And, yes, we will buy wine there. Too heavy to pack in our bags with all the restrictions these days! Plus, we want to try Canadian wines/bubbly while were there:)

[jan-n-john]

There iare very active roll calls for both Solstice 2015 Sydney to Honolulu and Honolulu to Vancouver legs. If you have not done so please come join us. :)

 

Yes, I've seen them but haven't gotten active yet -- too many posts to get caught up on. Will do soon.

[TxnAquarian]

So glad to read that you enjoyed it! There are so many uptight, entitled whiners on this board lately, it's nice to hear something positive. We found Celebrity in 2011, and while we don't cruise exclusively with them, it is our favorite cruise line. Great report!

 

 

 

 

Michael

[jgreenwo17]

There's two ships in port on the 24th, you and Zuiderdam...thank goodness Disney is out at Ballantyne. It will be busy but not as nuts as this Saturday is going to be. Just be patient. Vancouver always takes longer to board because you have to go through US Customs first.

 

You sure you want to buy your wine in Canada? ;) From the Pan Pacific there's a liquor store at the base of the harbour tower... it's the Vancouver Landmark with the space ship on the top on Hastings street. With your back to the Pan and the ships, it's on your left. Liquor store is on the ground floor. If you fancy a walk, there's a nice Wine Store up Burrard beside the Sutton Place Hotel. There's also a wine store on Pender which have your back to the Pan again, walk up Burrard a block and head right on Pender, it's about 2 blocks down. Enjoy :)

 

Wine may be cheaper stateside, but even wine purchased in Canada has to be cheaper than what X is going to charge you once onboard. I had a "classic wine package" on the Solstice. $35.00 worth of wince cost over a hundred on board the Solstice.

[txskier]

We were on this cruise too, our first with Celebrity.

We flew in two days early and stayed at Turtle Bay Resort...had an excellent time there, food great at the resort.

 

Overall, the cruise was really good. We had really good to excellent service. Bar service was almost non existant around the pools. We did not have any kind of "beverage package"

 

We were in a Royal Suite, excellent service with anything from room steward (Marivic), butler (Brig), concierge (Sarah) and bar service in Michael's (Joyce).

 

Food....good to very good.....consistant....Ate in Murano, Tuscan and did the Chef's Table. Chef's Table was not worth the $$. Mushroom soup in Murano excellent. Steak (ribeye) I had in Tuscan was very good.....But I hate to say that the 6 times in Carnival's Steakhouse, Carnival wins for thickness of ribeye and service....have also eaten at steakhouses on Royal Caribbean and NCL.

 

Dining room....early dining table 220 served by Savio and Rozario. We were at a 4 top by ourselves. Savio and Rozario gave us excellent service. Food was pretty good.....my favorite desserts>bananas foster and warm chocolate cake.....had to eat two of these....if you order it you will see.

 

The design of the ship.....most of it we liked.....Read cruisetrail review of the S-class and then it makes sense in person for us.

 

Michael's and the Ensemble Lounge area are rather like dark dungeons with the dark wood. It is quite the opposite of other areas of the ship.

 

Yes, people do wear lanyards on Celebrity.

Yes, people do act the same in the buffet area as all other ships we have sailed.

I will say that on formal nights, people dress up WAY more on Celebrity, at least on this cruise.

 

We really liked Celebrity and someday we will sail Celebrity again. We have fun on all cruiselines:D

Edited May 15, 2014 by txskier

[bbqoug]

We were also on the Hawaii to Vancouver cruise and absolutely loved it.

 

I thought the service was very good. The staff was very attentive and friendly.

We never had a problem getting a drink with our premium drink package. We were approached for drinks way more often than on the Eclipse 18 months ago.

The sommeliers often seemed stretched thin in the main dining room, but they still did a good job.

 

Our cabin steward (Novie) and his assistant were as good as we've ever had on a cruise.

 

The food in the main dining room was very good.

We had the 5 specialty dining package and enjoyed all 3 specialty restaurants.

Murano and Silk Harvest tied for first place with Tuscan Grill not far behind.

 

The only slight complaints I have are that the internet was VERY SLOW, and it was often hard to find an unoccupied table in the buffet.

 

The entertainment was also great. It far exceeded our expectations and experiences from prior cruises.

 

We will definitely be back with Celebrity in the future.

 

One thing to add.... We never received the end of cruise email questionnaire. I would have liked to have received it so we could give kudos to the many crew members that deserve it.

I checked my spam folder, but it wasn't in there either.

Edited May 15, 2014 by bbqoug

[jgreenwo17]

We were also on the Hawaii to Vancouver cruise and absolutely loved it.

 

I thought the service was very good. The staff was very attentive and friendly.

We never had a problem getting a drink with our premium drink package. We were approached for drinks way more often than on the Eclipse 18 months ago.

The sommeliers often seemed stretched thin in the main dining room, but they still did a good job.

 

Our cabin steward (Novie) and his assistant were as good as we've ever had on a cruise.

 

The food in the main dining room was very good.

We had the 5 specialty dining package and enjoyed all 3 specialty restaurants.

Murano and Silk Harvest tied for first place with Tuscan Grill not far behind.

 

The only slight complaints I have are that the internet was VERY SLOW, and it was often hard to find an unoccupied table in the buffet.

 

The entertainment was also great. It far exceeded our expectations and experiences from prior cruises.

 

We will definitely be back with Celebrity in the future.

 

One thing to add.... We never received the end of cruise email questionnaire. I would have liked to have received it so we could give kudos to the many crew members that deserve it.

I checked my spam folder, but it wasn't in there either.

 

BBQOUG,

 

We are John and Jill from SLC, UT, (same as you), and never received the invite on the CC meet and greet so were unable to meet a lot of folks on the roll call. Anyway, sorry to not have met another salt laker on this cruise. Glad you had a good time!

 

Sorry you did not get the email survey. I let them know where they shined and not so much on the survey I received. Hopefully you get yours as well.

 

John and Jill